Lanhydrock House

Lanhydrock House is a country house of 17th-century origin built on earlier foundations. The north range is dated 1636 and was built for Lord John Robartes. The house was largely destroyed by fire in 1881 and was rebuilt in 1882, with only the north range and part of the porch surviving from the original structure.

The building is constructed of granite ashlar with granite dressings. The roofs are slated with ridge tiles and gable ends, featuring embattled parapets with obelisks topped by ball finials. Axial stacks are of granite ashlar with embattled cornices.

The original house formed a U-shaped plan, of which only the north range survives from the 17th century. This wing was constructed as a first-floor hall with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, heated by two lateral stacks on the inner side of the range. A central porch in the original central range also remains. The rebuilt 19th-century house follows the same U-plan form, with an extensive service block to the rear left.

The exterior presents a symmetrical two-storey front. The west range has a central two-storey porch with string courses and an embattled parapet topped with obelisks. The ground floor features a four-centred arched doorway with roll-moulding, recessed spandrels, a hood mould with label stops, and a fine carved door. Above this is a carved stone shield of arms with hood mould. The first floor contains a two-light chamfered granite window with hood mould serving as a string course, with two six-light granite mullioned windows to either side at both ground and first floors.

The north range is two storeys high with three four-centred arched roll-moulded doorways with carved spandrels and hood moulds; the left doorway is dated 1636 and all have panelled studded doors. The ground floor has four 19th-century granite mullioned windows, while the first floor features three six-light 17th-century granite mullioned windows with king mullions, continuous hood moulds, and an embattled parapet. The front gable end is concealed by the parapet. The ground floor here has a 19th-century four-light chamfered granite window with king mullion, and the first floor has a similar 17th-century six-light window containing 17th-century stained glass. The outer side of the wing displays four similar first-floor windows, with 19th-century four-light windows at ground floor and two smaller four-light windows possibly dating to the 17th century. At the end right is a four-centred arched roll-moulded doorway with recessed spandrels, hood mould with label stops, and a fine door with carved arched panels to the upper part, alongside a similar small four-light granite window. To the rear left, service ranges of two storeys with attic feature granite windows with mullions and gabled dormers with scrolled kneelers. The rear service range is built of squared rubble with granite dressings.

The interior of the north range has been altered during the 19th and 20th centuries at ground floor level. The first floor contains a gallery running the full length of the range. The plaster barrel ceiling, probably completed by 1642, contains 24 panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament, almost certainly attributed to the Abbot family of Frithelstock near Bideford. Two contemporary granite fireplaces feature basket arches with roll-moulding, vestigial ogees, carved mantels, and plaster overmantels. Seventeenth-century panelling, largely removed in the 19th century for bookcases, originally lined the walls. In the roof above the barrel vault, the original trusses survive from the time of the plasterwork, the range having been built as a first-floor hall. These trusses are unchamfered with halved and pegged principal rafters and threaded purlins; straight collars and tie-beams are also halved and pegged.

The principal rooms of the 19th-century building feature panelling, granite fireplaces, and plaster ceilings in Jacobean style. The house contains an unusually complete range of service rooms.